Lesson 5: What is the Lord’s Supper?

Lesson 5: What is the Lord’s Supper?

Homework for Lesson 5: What is the Lord’s Supper?

Read and Meditate on I Corinthians 11:17-32:

Basic questions regarding, the Lord’s Supper from this passage:

• What were the major problems in the way the Corinthian church was observing the Lord’s Supper from verses 17-22?
• What ways did Paul correct their practice and purpose for celebrating the Lord Supper in verses 23-26?
• What solemn warnings did Paul give in verses 27-32?

Basic questions answered from this passage:

• There was discord in the church rather than harmony
• There were factions rather than unity
• There was gluttony and drunkenness rather than temperance and Spirit control
• There were respecters of persons rather than humility and equality
• These issues made a blatant mockery both of the value of the sacrifice of Christ’s broken body and shed blood, as well as a mockery of the practice of the believer’s position in Christ.
• This is done as a memorial to remember Christ’s sacrifice and our position.
• This memorial is to strengthen us in the practice of our position in Christ that was purchased with His body and blood.
• The elements do not mystically become the body and blood of Christ. Christ was not eating His own flesh and blood and His sacrifice took place once and for all.
• There is nothing salvific about this ordinance. It does nothing to strengthen or to weaken my position in Christ. It is a memorial lest we forget.
• No man is worthy no matter his spiritual practice. The word unworthy is an adverb describing the way in which the believer observes the Lord’s Table. They had made profane the holy and made light what is sacred, and this was a most unworthy means of remembering Christ’s sacrifice.
• As the Romans and Jews mocked the Messiah, so can we in the way that we approach this ordinance. Let us be terrified that we would approach this memorial with such a spirit. They were guilty of death and chastening as a nation, and so are we as individuals if we profane this memorial.
• We are to examine the way in which we partake, and if we come flippantly, we alone will bear the consequences of our spiritual indifference and immaturity. Chastening to the point of death is not out of the realm of ways in which God dealt with and still could deal with the believer today.

What truths do we glean from I Corinthians 11 on the Lord’s Supper?

• This is to be a time of great joy as we remember our inheritance and hope of glory through the sacrifice of Christ.
• This is to be a time of great humility as we remember the necessity of Christ’s sacrifice for us.
• This is to be a time of purity as we examine the way in which we partake of this memorial.
• This is to be a time of worship as we with grateful hearts thank our great God for the demonstration of His love toward us in the sacrifice of His Son.
• This is to be a time of soberness as we reflect on the weight of Christ’s sacrifice for us.
• This is to be a time of peace of mind as we recognize that the wrath of God was fully satisfied in the death of His Son.
• This is be a time of strengthened resolve to holy practice as we remember all that we have in Christ.
• This is to be a time of cleansing as we confess our sins to our heavenly Father that we might have a restored sweetness of fellowship through the sacrifice of His Son.